Main reasons for a main character: A question of viability or just emotional bonds?

This is something I often ponder about.

In one corner we have people who sticks to the same character for years. Some of these have even played the very same character as main since World of Warcraft was released. Others only switched mains maybe once or twice.

There's an unspoken sort of respect surrounding these kind of players.

And then...

In the other corner we got alt-o-holics, who can never decide, or just gets bored easily. The latest expansions made life easier for these kind of players, who go by terms such as 'FOTM-rerollers'. A general discourse dictates, that these people should be frowned upon for whatever reasons.

But the categorizations of these two types of players doesn't matter to me. What's really interesting is how and why do we bond with our characters?

Do you stick to one class because it has special mounts, achievements, titles and most important of all - your best World of Warcraft-memories? Or are you fine with having 11 different level 90'ies, because your greatest interest is being top dollar DPS/Healing/Tank at any cost?

In other words...

Do you stick to one class because of emotional attachments or do you reroll for maximum efficiency? Or maybe something in between? Or maybe you feel let-down and forced to reroll, even though you don't want to.

I have a main. My main is my mage, and depsite me disliking lots of stuff that's happened to the class playstile-wise, I still stick with it due to emotional bonds. My mage was the first character created on my account, and I've been through lots on that character. They will always be my official "main" even if an alt gets more gear.

No matter what class I'm currently playing, when you reference to me as a WoW player, I am a mage. That's how it's always been with me and that's how it always will be.

That being said, I do play loads of alts. I mostly just enjoy leveling. I play my main at 90 and maybe one or two other alts will have some 90 gear too.

I never use my main in instances anyway. I use him only for questing and checking out all the lore in a new expansion. He's always the first one to max level. I have pretty harsh rules when I level in new content. I do every single quest in every zone and don't go to the next one until I'm done. I don't do any dungeons until I have a quest/lore related reason to.

But once my Rogue has capped and I've done all the quest content, that's when I break out my Warrior tank and Priest healer and start grinding instances and rep and stuff.

I level a few toons just out of boredom, but if anyone asked me what I considered my main it would always be my paladin, since it was the first toon I hit max level on, the first toon I raided on, and you get the point. But right now I play my shaman more, just because it's my toon that got into my friend's raid group to heal...and now my shamans ilevel(535) is way higher than my paladin(490)...so that's probably not changing any time soon,but my paladin is still my main to me.

I have an alliance and horde boomie. My alliance one I consider my main because I've spent the most time with it, so there is some emotional attachment, but I did go with my horde boomie as main for about a year.

Originally Posted by Zdrasti

When a homeless person is rambling in the streets, it's better to ignore them than argue with them. On the internets it's clearly better to spend an entire week proving them wrong.

I've played every class and started most of my alts during bc/wotlk. During ICC I had time to raid with at least 3 of them every week. During that expansion I tried to get as much achievements as I could get with my mage.
Nowadays I'm only raiding with my main (mage). I'm only levelling different toons and then maybe do some lfr occassionaly with those lvl 90s. I sometimes enjoy creating even more toons and level those (I have a few by now spread on different realms) but I've started out as a mage 7 years ago - I'm always coming back to it.

wheres the option :i play what i enjoy? my main was hunter since i started raiding and i loved it. Untill mop. its hard to grasp what has changed but after 1st tier of mop raids i was so bored of hunter gameplay, all specs feel same now, stripped of its uniqueness. it felt like someone sucked out all enjoyment from playstyle. so it finally happend , something i never thought i'd do, i rerolled. i've choosen warlock, never looked back.

My main's been my hunter since i started in the middle of TBC. I was tempted to reroll once, but I feel a certain loyalty to him as silly as that may be, got insane, did all my raiding from t4-10, 70+ exalted reps.

I tend to imbue personalities on to all of my toons, but my hunter has always basically been me. Don't think I could ever swap for a few % more dps.

He's had a race change though, started nelf, saw the light (blame Frostheim) and been a dwarf ever since.

I've played my shaman as a main since ICC patch, before that my main was hunter (which i created in middle of TBC) and i still have almost similar /played hours on them, as hunter is my "first alt" nowadays. I'm not counting my first classic/TBC characters as mains because they were more like "ding max lvl and forget it".

I think i have bit of emotional attachment, but mostly because shaman is (imo) good class for my play style, strong self heals etc. as i always play alone. And because it has best gear (cba to run LFR that much on alts) and biggest collection of transmog gear (lol) i see no reason to change main even in future. Hunter have even more emotional attachment, but it's not that fun to play anymore as i'm used to my shaman.

So i think biggest reason is that i still "enjoy" my main after all these years and it's too much hassle to change it.

Edit: though if i was forced to have new main, i would try my paladin alt. (have 8 toons at 85-90lvls) it has similar things, fluid (imo) melee rotation and good selfheals as my shaman (which is enhancement)

Playing my hunter as main since I started playing at TBC, cant let go of him no matter what. Its like he is my wow avatar or something.

---------- Post added 2013-06-29 at 09:04 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Amat

My main's been my hunter since i started in the middle of TBC. I was tempted to reroll once, but I feel a certain loyalty to him as silly as that may be, got insane, did all my raiding from t4-10, 70+ exalted reps.

I tend to imbue personalities on to all of my toons, but my hunter has always basically been me. Don't think I could ever swap for a few % more dps.

He's had a race change though, started nelf, saw the light (blame Frostheim) and been a dwarf ever since.

I have 9 characters. I don't play the one that is "FOTM", I play the one I feel like playing when I log in. Sure I'll have stuff I'll be working towards on each of them, but everytime I log in, I look on my character screen and think "what do I feel like playing today"

I have always loved my warlock, same with my druid, just not as long.
No point in giving up a class because of nerfs etc, or another class is the current FOTM. Because that will just end in an endless spiral doing the same thing.

And to me that's a waste of time. Not to mention, some classes simply aren't fun to play.

I had a warlock as my main from Classic to WotLK. During ToC I leveled a druid first mostly because I heard feral was easy to level and then for the hybrid opportunities that wasnt available as a pure DPS class, especially as someone who moved on to PuG raiding. My warlock remains my best played class. I swap between the characters and during times of limited game play Ill focus on one. I got no problem with leaving one to the side in order to focus on another. An alt is kind of just to have something different. At this point I dont really considered any one to be my main and they are more of just options. I dont share the mentality that a player has to keep all their alts balanced and up to date. If you have the time go for it.

Having alts before was considered a no-lifer thing and it has become more accessible for those with less game play time which also means other types of players can level alts, namely those who are opposed to repeating content. I think doing the content again comes with the territory.

It's a class thing moreso then a specific character thing to me. I enjoy my warlocks more then my other classes I have. My main being a warlock means I have a very easy time sticking to him. Add to that what I've done on him and the time I've spent playing him and there's even more of an emotional bond there.

All in all though, if you took my account away from me, and gave me a level 90 Warlock on a fresh account I'd have most of my enjoyment back. I'd still miss all of my toys and mounts and titles and pets and transmogs, but I've played long enough to know that those things are usually subject to change often enough that there'd be stuff in the future to replace them and delight me just as much. Only thing that I'd actually miss on a fresh account untill I got it back is my Insane title.

I find it's quite hard to abandon the character that was my virtual alter ego for long years, and every another year makes it harder. I am that kind of "nice guy". I have built quite respectable reputation at my realm. People also know me for my achievements in raiding and guild leading. In the begining every character in game is just virtual avatar of someone but time starts to blurs the line between avatar and its player. In the begining it is like: "This is Johny, he plays a paladin called Johndoe." but after few years it is more like: "This is Johndoe. You know, the paladin." ...

I have 9 characters. I don't play the one that is "FOTM", I play the one I feel like playing when I log in. Sure I'll have stuff I'll be working towards on each of them, but everytime I log in, I look on my character screen and think "what do I feel like playing today"

That's WoW for me really, it keeps my experience varied and fun.

Excactly. It's the same for me. It's just those 2/3 days I "need" to play my main because of raid.

Edit: As xskarma said
"... if you took my account away from me, and gave me a level 90 Warlock on a fresh account I'd have most of my enjoyment back. I'd still miss all of my toys and mounts and titles and pets and transmogs, but I've played long enough to know that those things are usually subject to change often enough that there'd be stuff in the future to replace them and delight me just as much. Only thing that I'd actually miss on a fresh account untill I got it back is my Insane title."
I feel about the same with my mage. I'd also miss my achievements and I'd be frustrated about the time I've put into my account. But then again.. I have a few mages on my account and it just feels different logging onto my main. It even still feels different now - even though it's been months since she race changed